Pulquería, Mexico

1923–1924

Mexico changes the way he sees things

The different culture and scenery force him to look at things in new ways: he becomes more responsive to what is in front of him and photographs everyday objects such as toys, doorways and bathroom fixtures, as well as intimate nudes and portraits of Modotti, and writes in his Daybooks that the approach to photography is through realism. A second exhibition at the Aztec Land Gallery follows in 1924, and a steady stream of local socialites asks him for portraits.

1925

Burns his old journals and begins a new series

The next month he sets up a studio with Johan Hagemeyer; as though trying to erase the past, he burns all of his pre-Mexico journals and starts a new series of nudes with Lerner and with his son Neil, calling these images the start of a new period in his approach to photography.

1925

Back in Mexico: a joint show with Modotti

His new relationship with Lerner does not last long, and in August he returns to Mexico, this time with his son Brett; Modotti has arranged a joint show of their photographs, and it opens the week he arrives. He receives new critical acclaim, and six of his prints are purchased for the State Museum.

late 1926

Break with Modotti and return to California

By the time they return from the trip, Weston and Modotti’s relationship has crumbled, and within less than two weeks he and Brett go back to California. He never travels to Mexico again.

1927

A major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor

In September he has a major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

1928

The Mojave Desert: his first landscapes as art

A brief but important trip with Brett to the Mojave Desert, where he first explores and photographs landscape as an art form. The stark rock forms and empty spaces are a visual revelation to him; over a long weekend he takes twenty-seven photographs and declares in his journal that these negatives are the most important he has ever done.